


A Fleeting Moment

by boombashkas



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe, Confused Jason, Extremely Not-Straight Jason, Jason gets knocked out over and over again, M/M, Mystery, Or Is It?, Panicking Jason, Unrequited Love, so in that way it's v close to canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-25 13:21:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15641601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boombashkas/pseuds/boombashkas
Summary: Opportunity knocks but once, and you'd better answer when it does.The only problem is, Jason didn't realize those knocks usually came upside the head. And when he wakes up, he isn't sure where he is. It looks like camp, it feels like camp, it even smells like camp - but everything is just that little bit off. This isn't the Camp Half-Blood he knows, these aren't the friends he loves, and this Percy holding his hand tenderly is definitely not the Percy he was just casual friends with.





	1. The Revolving Door

The boy was beautiful and was smiling like he knew it. He was shorter than Jason, almost dainty in his build, but his hovering toes gave him the illusion of height. His Greek toga was blazing white, in sharp contrast with his dark skin. His eyes were large, impossibly so, and he had a peculiar hairstyle that would look funny on anyone else but was charming on him – a closely-shaven head, except for one long wavy wisp of hair, hanging smooth and silky in front of his face.

He held a peculiar blade in one hand. Not a sword. It had one long blunt handle and one long sharp edge on its other side, and balanced on top of the sharp edge were a set of delicate silver scales, swaying in the wind. His sandals were floating in the air, sporting matching silver wings. Jason would have wondered if he was related to Mercury, but he was clearly an immortal, and so was without a doubt related to Mercury.

He was beckoning to Jason with one slim-fingered hand, calling for him on the top of Half-Blood Hill. Behind him, Peleus the dragon growled lowly, but he didn’t spare him a glance; he only had eyes for Jason.

Jason didn’t know what came over him. He obediently climbed the hill and stood in front of the beautiful immortal.

He traced the edge of Jason’s jaw with greedy eyes. His fingertips moved down Jason’s arm. He grasped his hand and lifted it to his own face.

His one lock of hair fluttered in front of his eyes. He closed Jason’s fingers on it, and the last thing Jason thought was that it felt like rippling water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyyy everyone!!! it's been a while huh?? i genuinely cant believe it's been almost 3 years since i last posted something here. i apologise for that, and i know i've left some things unfinished. i'll try to get to that soon (try being the operative word here lol)  
> i can't guarantee regular updates to this fic, although i have about 15k more words written up already. but i also have a ton of other fics i've been working on-and-off on for the past few years and i'm hoping to be able to wrap them up and post them here, so we both have that to look forward to!  
> i hope you enjoyed this little part. next update should be soon, i just wanted to be like. artist-y and shit and post a tiny bit of it as an epilogue.  
> let me know what you think in the comments! and please PLEASE do, because it genuinely does encourage the writer to keep posting more and more regularly. i definitely wouldn't be posting another fic if it wasn't for your continuously sweet comments for the past few years. and to be deadly honest with you, i am posting this at 2 am here in my country only because i'm thirsting for that sweet SWEET validation.  
> look forward to jercy in the next update, and possibly some more jercy fics i am posting purely for my attention-seeking lil bitch of a heart. pls comment! thank you for reading  
> p.s. im sorry this is almost as long as the chapter pls excuse what a mess i am


	2. All These Familiar Faces

When he next opened his eyes, he was lying underneath Thalia’s tree and a dragon’s face was hovering on top of his.

He let out an involuntary shout and scrambled upright, scaring Peleus, who let out a blazing snort. Jason just barely managed to not singe his eyebrows.

It was day now and Camp Half-Blood was alive with activity. The sun was burning in the sky, and he could see the intense red of the strawberry fields all the way from here.

There was something odd about the way the camp was laid out in front of him that Jason couldn’t put his finger on. It was probably the emptiness of the dining pavilion, which meant breakfast had already passed while he had been sleeping.

He turned back to Peleus, who was looking at him with what Jason would assume was concern, if he didn’t know any better. “Sorry, Peleus,” he said, backing away with his hands in the air. “I guess I fell asleep here.”

Peleus let out a strange low noise, not quite a growl, something like a rumble. He was still watching Jason with bright yellow eyes. 

Before this moment, Jason had had absolutely zero interactions with the dragon that guarded the tree that had once been his sister. He wasn’t sure if the way Peleus was staring him down was normal behavior for him. It looked almost like he was trying to tell Jason something.

He heard someone call his name from the base of the hill. He peered down to see Annabeth waving up at him.

It was probably a problem with one of the roofs of the new temples she was building. She preferred to have him fly up to the roofs to fix them, instead of having people climb up, which Jason knew was smart and time-efficient, but was starting to annoy him a little by now.

“Coming!” he shouted back, then turned to Peleus. “I’ll just be going now. Sorry for bothering you.”

He bowed before making his way down the hill. He’d seen Rachel Elizabeth Dare do that to Peleus once, although he wasn’t sure if that was what was expected or if it was just her being Rachel Elizabeth Dare. He thought it must be the latter, because Peleus still watched him go with the same curious gaze.

Annabeth had her hands on her hips. “Where have you been?” she said. “I’ve been looking for you all over the place!”

Jason almost stopped short. Annabeth, looking everywhere for him? He hadn’t thought they were such good friends.

“Yeah, sorry, I don’t know what happened,” he said. “I must’ve been sleepwalking. I just woke up over there.”

“What? Over where?”

Jason pointed. He couldn’t be sure but he thought Peleus was still watching him.

Annabeth studied him. “You’ve never sleepwalked before.”

Jason frowned. He hadn’t, but how did she know that? 

“I hope it doesn’t become a regular thing,” she continued.

“No, probably just a one-off. I didn’t exactly have the most restful night last night. That’s probably what triggered it.”

To his surprise, she rolled her eyes at him. “Are you still angry about that? Clarisse apologized! And she really didn’t know the two of you would actually be there. It’s your fault, anyway, who told you guys to use the armory as your little love nest?”

Jason stared at her. He had been talking about how he’d stayed awake almost the whole night, for the hundredth night in a row, trying to calm himself down enough to fall asleep. Clearly, Annabeth was talking about something else entirely.

But the most shocking thing was how she was smiling at him. Her words had been harsh but, with a start, Jason realized they’d been _teasing_. He’d never known Annabeth to tease him about anything before.

“Um… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She huffed, but she was still smiling. “You and Percy are so sensitive, honestly. Speaking of which, come on.” She tilted her head towards camp. “You’ve almost missed the Council Meeting.”

“That was _today_? Isn’t it on Friday?”

She gave him an exasperated look. “Are you sure you didn’t hit your head while you were sleepwalking? Council Meetings are always on Wednesday, genius. Now, come on, they’re all waiting on us.”

And then she grabbed his arm and started walking.

~*~

As if Jason wasn’t dumbfounded enough at having his arm grabbed by none other than Annabeth Chase, she wouldn’t stop talking to him either.

“… so any diplomatic option is definitely off the table,” she was saying. “Obviously none of us want a battle, but if that’s what they’re angling for, we’ll have to give it to them. Clarisse and the rest of the Ares kids are definitely up for it, but it seems like such a waste, doesn’t it? I mean, we’re all demigods, we should all be on the same side. What do you think?”

The way she threw that at him, so casually, the way she was walking with him and talking to him – it was throwing him off-balance. “Annabeth, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Well, obviously you don’t. Neither of you have been paying any attention to me lately. And you’re always off with each other, so I can never find you when I need to.” She was doing something weird with her face, like she was trying to frown at him but couldn’t. Her eyes were sparkling with happiness.

He floundered. “Us… two?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Grace. I know you.” She grinned at him and Jason had the urge to ask her _Do you?_

They had reached the Big House. Annabeth clattered up the stairs ahead of him. Jason followed slowly, looking around, as if an answer to all his questions would pop up from behind the rocking chair on the porch. 

Annabeth held the door for him. “Gods, hurry up,” she snapped, and again, Jason was hit with the realization that she was being playful and not actually being unkind.

He followed her into the rec room, where all the Council Meetings were held, and drew a sigh of relief when he saw it. He didn’t know why, but he had expected it to have somehow changed completely overnight, just like Annabeth seemed to.

But it was the same room with the wide windows and the ping-pong table in the centre that they all still used as a meeting table, despite Jason’s continual insistence to have it replaced by an actual table. 

All the head counselors were seated around it and they nodded as Jason and Annabeth walked in. There seemed to be less people than usual, but maybe some of them couldn’t make it. Chiron stood at the head of the table. He was peering out the window and turned around when they entered.

“Ah, finally,” he said, smiling warmly at Jason. “Let’s begin then.”

Annabeth circled around the table and took her seat, Clarisse and Will on either side of her. There was only one chair left near the head of the table, next to Percy, who beamed as Jason settled down beside him.

“Hey,” he said softly.

“Hi,” Jason said.

He gave Jason one last smile before turning to Chiron, who stepped forward to place a large map on the table.

“Let’s get right to it, shall we?” Chiron said. “This is the latest map I could find in our stores. I tried to fill in as much as I could from memory but…” He looked apologetic. “It was a long time ago.”

“No, this is great, Chiron,” Percy said, leaning forward. “We wouldn’t have even this much if it wasn’t for you.”

“Thank you, Percy. I only hope it’s accurate.”

All the counselors were bending forward to study the map. Jason only had to glance at the most noticeable part of the map – ‘The Field of Mars’ – before he knew what it was.

“This is a map of Camp Jupiter,” he said.

“Yes,” Chiron said. The word ‘obviously’ hung unuttered in the air.

“But…” Jason leaned closer. The others were blocking the light but he could still make out the errors in the map. It was more similar to the layout of Camp Jupiter two or three hundred years ago that Jason had studied when he was still just a soldier in his cohort.

“This is wrong,” he said, pointing to the Pomerian Line. “That’s inside city limits. The line is out farther than that, unless the scale of the map is all weird. And here – it’s missing the whole aqueduct. And that’s not the course of the Little Tiber anymore, it hasn’t flowed that way for years. And they haven’t even illustrated Caldecott Tunnel anywhere.” He looked up. “This map is all wrong.”

The others were staring at him like he had grown an extra head. “Jason,” Annabeth said, “You told us you didn’t remember the exact landmarks of Camp Jupiter. You said it was all a blur.”

“ _What_? Why would I say that?” He had lived in Camp Jupiter all his life. In fact, he was going to college in New Rome soon. In what world would he not know what Camp Jupiter looked like?

“Is it because of the sleepwalking?” Annabeth’s eyes widened. She reached across the table and grabbed Jason’s wrist. Jason jumped in surprise. “Did the sleepwalking trigger your memories?”

“Can sleepwalking do that?” Will Solace asked, watching Jason curiously. He and Jason had become pretty good friends ever since Nico and Will started dating, but there was no trace of friendly acknowledgment in his eyes now. He didn’t even smile at Jason when he looked over at him.

Jason wondered why they didn’t ask Clovis, the Head Counselor for the Hypnos cabin, but one quick glance down the table gave Jason his answer: there was no Clovis.

In fact, Jason realized with a growing sense of panic inside his bones, there was no Butch, son of Iris. There was no Lou Ellen, daughter of Hecate.

And there was no Nico. No Leo. No Piper.

Jake Mason frowned at him from down the table, one arm in a sling. Beside him, Drew Tanaka smacked her lips at him.

Annabeth was snapping her fingers in his face. But if her hand was in front of him, then who was touching his hand…?

He looked down – lean, brown, bitten nails. Percy was holding his hand. Percy was looking at him with concerned eyes.

“Jason,” he said, and then he put his other hand to Jason’s neck, his palm warm and callused against Jason’s skin. “Are you okay?”

“I –“ His tongue didn’t seem to be working. “I –“

“If this is a con to get Jackson to baby you again, Grace,” Clarisse growled at him, “I swear to the gods –“

“Clarisse, stop,” Annabeth cut in. “Jason, this is really not the time. We have a battle strategy to work out, or else we’re going to lose.” She tapped the map with one sharp finger, click-click-click. “What were you saying about the landmarks? That was important.”

“Battle strategy?” Jason said weakly. “Who are we fighting?”

Annabeth frowned, as if she was just realizing Jason might not be faking his confusion. Beside him, Percy said softly, “Jason, you know who we’re fighting.”

“No.” But he already did. “ _Who_?”

Percy and Annabeth exchanged glances, then looked up at Chiron. He was watching Jason grimly. “Camp Jupiter,” he said. “We are at war with the Roman demigods. Over you. We fight them in three days.”

That was when he fainted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> knocking out your main character twice in the span of two very short chapters counts as good writing, right?  
> yayy for the quick chap update! i know this is a short one but im trying to have short updates + pace them out so the stuff i've already written out lasts longer, so i dont need to abandon this until my exams end like i know i'd end up doing otherwise. hopefully it'll be a longer update next time tho!  
> also it's my birthday today!!! i loved the comments and kudos you guys left last time, thank you so much! you know what would make a great birthday? more of those comments lol i love them.  
> see you guys soon with another update. thanks for all the love and encouragement so far <33


	3. A Bolt From The Blue

This time when he came to, he was in a bed, and instead of one giant dragon face hovering in front of him, there were half a dozen human (and one centaur) ones.

He shifted in the bed. “Get away!” he heard Percy say, and then someone was sitting beside him on the bed, hand on his shoulder.

“Jason?” Percy was saying in a soft voice Jason had never heard him use before. “Are you feeling okay?”

He blinked his eyes a few times and looked around. The room he was in was one of the guest-rooms on the upper floor of the Big House. He was lying on top of the sheets on the bed, shoes on, glasses off, and he was still wearing the same clothes he had when he woke up this morning: a worn-out long-sleeved shirt and a pair of his most comfortable jeans – the kind of outfit that didn’t look like pajamas but were comfy enough to wear to bed, so he could go to sleep in them but also jump awake to fight a monster within minutes.

The room was packed: him, Percy, Annabeth, Will, Clarisse, and the Stolls, with Chiron looming over all of them, looking hassled. Jason sat up.

“Whoa,” Will said, stepping forward. “Take it easy.” He handed Jason a glass of water. “Drink this.”

Jason gulped it gratefully. Once he was done, Will made Percy get up from the bed, which he did reluctantly, so he could inspect Jason properly.

“You seem okay,” Will said, turning Jason’s head this way and that. “I think you just need some sugar in you.”

“Ambrosia?” Percy asked, wringing his hands nervously.

“No need for that. It’ll just give him a fever.” He turned to the doorway where one of his brothers, Austin, if Jason remembered correctly, was standing. “Get Jason something sweet from the dining pavilion.”

“Coffee cake,” Percy told Austin before he left. Jason had never told Percy that was his favorite dessert.

“Are you sure he doesn’t have a head injury?” Annabeth asked, watching Jason from the foot of the bed. Her face was drawn with worry. “He said he’d been sleepwalking and that he woke up only half an hour ago on top of Half-Blood Hill. He doesn’t even remember how he got there, and now he’s suffering from more memory loss.”

“And some memory gain,” Clarisse pointed out. “All of a sudden he remembers exactly what Camp Jupiter looks like.”

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” one of the Stolls asked.

“Sounds like treason to me,” the other said.

“Jason is one of our own,” Chiron said firmly. “We’re his family. He belongs to no one else.” His tone of voice gave Jason the impression he’d had this same argument many times before.

He clip-clopped his way closer to the bed, reached down towards the nightstand and plucked up a pair of glasses. “I’m glad you’re awake, Jason,” he said, handing them to him.

They weren’t Jason’s glasses but as soon as he put them on he realized this was the pair he had been wearing since he had woken up on the hill. A sudden pang hit him – he wasn’t going to find his glasses in this world, whatever this world was. His glasses were lighter than this pair, thinner too. They didn’t pinch the bridge of his nose as much. For a moment, he missed them more than he missed anything else.

Then he looked up at the faces around him, all so familiar yet so foreign, and he realized his glasses were the least of his problems.

Austin returned with Jason’s coffee cake. He ate it slowly, trying to stall, but he could feel the impatience in the room.

“I don’t know what happened at the hill,” he said, choosing his words carefully. “Annabeth’s right. I assumed it was sleepwalking but I’ve never done that before. Right?”

Hesitatingly, he directed this question at Percy. It seemed the right choice to make. To his surprise, Percy’s eyes widened and he turned red. “Right,” he stuttered. “I mean – not that I would know –“

Chiron let out a long-suffering sigh. The Stolls snickered. Ignoring them, Jason turned back to Will. “Annabeth might be right. I think you should check my head.”

“I just did,” Will said, but he still moved forward to go over it again. “It seems okay to me. It doesn’t hurt anywhere, does it?”

Jason contemplated lying for the sake of a cover story but, knowing the combined intelligence of all the people in this room, he knew he would be caught real quick. “No. But then what other explanation could there be?”

He chanced a glance at Annabeth, hoping she wasn’t seeing through him. Thankfully, she was watching Will anxiously, as if bracing for bad news. He felt a twinge of discomfort somewhere in his chest. This Annabeth cared about him a lot more than the Annabeth he knew. He didn’t know how to feel about that.

“The only thing I can think of – and don’t freak out please,” Will said pointedly to Percy, “is that you might have been drugged.”

Percy freaked out. “Drugged?” he cried.

“In camp?” Chiron said sharply.

“There’s no way,” Annabeth said firmly. “No one would do something like that.”

“Even if they could,” Chiron said, “Where would they get a drug?”

“The Stolls have all sorts of contraband in their cabin,” Clarisse said, giving the Stolls a side-eye.

They glared daggers at her. “Yeah, but our contraband is, like, junk food,” one of them said. “We would never smuggle drugs in here.”

“It might not have been intentional,” Will shrugged. “I don’t know. But that seems like a logical explanation, other than magic of some sort.”

“You’re trying to say that someone tried to do something to Jason?” Percy said. He had turned pale and now he sat next to Jason and grabbed his hand as if holding a lifeline.

Jason watched him, at the way he squeezed Jason’s hand, the fierce protectiveness in his face as he sat slightly in front of Jason, as if trying to shield him from everyone else. Jason’s head spun. Could it be…?

“It would make sense,” Annabeth said grimly. “If someone was trying to kidnap him and leave by going over Half-Blood Hill, Peleus would definitely have intervened. Maybe that’s why you were still there this morning, Jason. Peleus saved you.”

Everyone turned to him. Jason didn’t have to try and act miserable. “Maybe. But who would want to kidnap me?”

There was silence. Even the Stolls, who had been watching the proceedings with large grins on their faces, turned somber.

“The Romans,” Clarisse said.

“What?” Jason stared at her in shock.

Percy touched his arm. His eyebrows were still drawn down, but his face gentled as he looked at Jason. “You probably don’t remember this, but our war with the Romans is for you. They want you back. They say you’re one of them.”

Jason stared at him. His hand was getting clammy in Percy’s. “But I – I mean, aren’t I?”

“I know you are, technically, but who cares about technically?” Percy frowned, suddenly furious, and his grip on Jason tightened. “Your father claimed you here, not there. You’ve lived here your whole life. We’re your family. You, me, Annabeth…” He glanced up at Annabeth, who was nodding along with what Percy was saying. “We grew up together. We wouldn’t be who we are today without each other. They have no right to challenge that.”

Jason couldn’t help but stare at Percy. Despite himself, he had become slightly in awe of Percy over the course of the few years he knew him, and this was another reason why. Percy hadn’t said anything that was earth-shaking – at least, not for anyone but Jason – and yet the mood of the whole room had changed. The others were watching Percy as if transfixed.

And he himself was looking at Jason with a kind of intensity Jason didn’t think he deserved. A kind of intensity that was making his thoughts sluggish, so it took forever for his mind to catch up to Percy’s words.

“Wait, what?” He looked up at Annabeth.

“The Romans say blood is more important than bond,” she said, hands clenched into fists at her side. “That your true place is with them and once you’re there you’ll realize that. What they really want is a leader, a son of Zeus who can lead them into victory. We’ve studied up on them. They’re a military society. All they have is their wars, their conquests, which is why they keep track of them so closely, and which is why they guard their heroes so closely too.” She came forward to sit on Jason’s other side, mirroring Percy’s position. “But you slipped their grasp, and they’re furious about it. They want their lost glory compensated for. They want you to defect over and win their battles for them.”

“They’re not concerned with things like family,” Percy said. “Or love.” His thumb was drawing circles on the back of Jason’s hand. Jason avoided his eyes.

The tattoo he had gotten in Camp Jupiter burned on his forearm. He thanked the gods he liked to wear long-sleeved shirts to bed.

“We won’t let them get you, Jason,” Annabeth said. She stood up. “Chiron, I think we need to restart patrol duty again. If the Romans really have a way to steal Jason out of his cabin all the way to the hill, we’re in trouble.”

“Indeed,” Chiron said, rubbing his jaw in thought. “If it hadn’t been for Peleus…”

Percy smiled at Jason. “Aren’t you glad we rescued that Golden Fleece?”

Jason felt numb. He didn’t know what to say so he just nodded and tried to smile. He hoped Percy didn’t try to kiss him.

“Uh, not to break up the love-fest, but doesn’t this mean the Romans know where we are?” Clarisse asked, raising her hand. “And they have a way of getting in?”

“They could have a different way of getting Jason out,” Will said. “They could have cursed him somehow the last time they had him. Made him walk his way out himself.”

“Cursed him?” a Stoll said. “Can they do that?”

Will shrugged. “Drew told me they did.”

“Oh, if it’s Drew, it must be true.”

“The point is, we have to be certain they don’t have our location,” Annabeth said. She was glaring down at the bed sheets in worry. “If they know where we are, they could ambush us at any second.”

“Which is why it’s so important we find out where their camp is first,” Percy added. “That map was really helpful, Chiron, but it didn’t tell us how we could get to the camp.”

“No, but Jason knows.” Annabeth perked up. “You said something about Caldecott Tunnel, right, Jason?”

Jason, who had been silently trying to ease his hand out of Percy’s, broke out into sweat. “Oh – I, uh –“

“Isn’t that in California?” one of the Stolls asked the other. “Remember, when we were in that foster home there –“

“You’re right,” his brother said. “I’m pretty sure that was the name of the tunnel in those hills - what were they called again?”

“I’m not sure if it’s really in California,” Jason started to say, but Annabeth cut him off excitedly, saying, “Chiron, can we have access to the computer room to Google it for a few minutes? We need an exact location.”

There was no way Chiron was going to deny her. He looked just as happy as her. He gave her permission and it was almost as if they all forgot about Jason as soon as a computer was mentioned – the room was half-empty in seconds.

Annabeth glanced back before leaving. “Percy, get Jason the map so he can start correcting it. The faster we have an accurate map, the better.”

“Annabeth, he’s sick!” Percy cried, but she had already rushed away.

The only people left in the room with him in the room were Percy and Chiron. “Chiron,” Percy said, “I haven’t seen Mr. D all day. Shouldn’t we be asking him about this?”

“You’re right,” Chiron said, rubbing his jaw. “He could have some useful insight. He left this morning to chase after some naiad, I forget who…”

“I doubt he’ll care, he’s barely taken any interest in the Romans so far. But it’s worth a shot.”

Chiron nodded. “You’re right. I should check. But I’m not sure I should leave you too.”

Percy blinked. His hand stiffened in Jason’s. “Why not?”

Chiron’s eyes flitted from Percy to Jason and back again. There was a half-way stern look on his face, like he was trying to scold them about something but was too embarrassed to. Then his eyes fell to Jason and Percy’s intertwined hands as Jason realized, with a flush, what Chiron was concerned about.

“You really think we’re going to try to do something with him like this, Chiron?” Percy asked, rolling his eyes and motioning to Jason in his entirety, empty cake plate and all. “Look at him.”

Chiron looked like he regretted hanging back in the room. “I’ll just go check – I mean, he should be back by now – I’ll get you the map when you feel better, Jason –“

He closed the door firmly behind him. Jason and Percy sat in silence, listening to him struggle down the stairs on four hooves.

Percy’s hand was warm in Jason’s. Jason didn’t think he’d ever examined anyone’s hand so closely, not even Piper’s when he was dating.

“Come on,” Percy said. He removed the plate from Jason’s lap and put it on the nightstand. “Let’s go to my cabin.”

“Your cabin?” Jason croaked. “I don’t think I’m allowed, am I?”

Percy tilted his head and smiled an odd smile. He had the ghost of a dimple in his right cheek, like someone had decided to give him one and then changed their mind. Like a lost brush-stroke on a painting. Something Jason had never noticed, and he wasn’t sure why he was noticing it now.

“You care about that now?” Percy asked, a strange tone to his voice. “Not the bajillion of other times you’ve been there? You know I talked to my dad about it. He doesn’t mind.”

Poseidon didn’t mind his son dating a son of Jupiter? If that was really what Percy was doing with Jason, that is. It seemed a little unbelievable.

Percy slipped his hand out of Jason’s and got up. “Come on,” he said. “And don’t worry. I’ll catch you if you faint again.”

~*~

Jason couldn’t wrap his head around it.

Back in his world, where everything made sense, Jason and Percy were both single. They were both very good friends. They had an understanding they didn’t share with anyone else, borne out of their similar circumstances and qualities, even though their personalities were wildly different.

But they were definitely, without a doubt, not dating.

Jason and Piper had broken up only recently. Well, it seemed recent to Jason – it had actually been six months. He had been trying desperately to move on, to not feel as if a fresh wound was opening in his chest whenever he saw Piper around camp, but it was harder than he had thought it would be. There were different kinds of hurt: hurt at being dumped, hurt at not being a good boyfriend, hurt at not being able to move on, hurt at seeing her be so happy without him, and hurt at being horrible enough to want her to be miserable without him.

But it was true. Piper was happy without him. Happier, in fact, than she had ever been with him. This was a fact that he could see for himself, and had been confirmed by many of Jason’s friends – Leo, Nico, Hazel, even Percy himself. “Move on,” they told him, “She definitely has.”

She wanted them to be friends again. She said she missed him. He didn’t want to hurt her, so he would accept her invitations to hang out. He would laugh at her jokes, have her on his team during Capture the Flag.

But it was painful. He didn’t want to spend time with her, and they both knew it. He was still hurting, and they both knew it. He should be long over it by now, seeing as how it had been half a year and it wasn’t like they had been soulmates in love, and they both knew that too.

Percy and Annabeth had broken up only recently; Jason didn’t think it had been even a whole month. And yet, the two of them seemed so content being broken up. They treated each other exactly the same, minus the flirting, kissing or hand-holding. They were still best friends. It was clear to anyone who saw them that they respected their friendship enough not to let their failed relationship ruin it.

Jason wished he could say the same thing about him and Piper. To be honest, he wasn’t sure if there was a friendship to be had. Or maybe – most probably, in fact – there was, but he was too stubborn and sensitive and heartbroken to accept her attempts at friendship.

And because of that, he had isolated himself from everyone else as well. Piper was friendly, charismatic, sweet. People wanted to be friends with her, people like Nico, Will, Percy – the same people Jason would usually hang out with. He didn’t mean to avoid her but over time, that’s basically what he started to do. And so he stopped seeing his friends.

For the past month or so, he had been wallowing in misery and self-pity. He knew he needed to get out of it. He knew it was all self-inflicted. He had just been waiting for the right moment to hit, for a turn in his story, a plot twist. Something to get him up and running.

Life had answered. This was definitely a plot twist.

~*~

Percy had a peculiar way of holding hands. It wasn’t holding as much as it was playing with. He was constantly swinging their hands, fidgeting Jason’s fingers, rubbing his fingertips on Jason’s nails, rubbing his thumb against Jason’s palms. He squeezed, then he shook. Jason knew Percy had ADHD and this reminded him of his old Percy. It was endearing, in an exhausting sort of way.

Another thing that Jason couldn’t wrap his head around – did this mean Percy liked guys? Was Percy bisexual? He couldn’t be gay, because the Percy that Jason knew had definitely been in love with Annabeth – unless this Percy, whoever he was, had never been in love with her, and was in fact only attracted to guys?

What did this mean about the Percy that Jason knew? And, in fact, what did it mean for Jason? Apparently, in this weird wacko world, Jason and Percy were dating, and were – according to all the snippets of information he had gathered so far from the way campers talked about the two them – very happy dating each other.

Jason had never labeled himself, mainly because any sort of romantic or sexual attraction he felt for anyone was as strong as an after-thought, an old grayscale memory. He kept himself open to the idea that he might like a guy one day, especially after becoming closer friends with Nico and Will. If ever anyone asked about it, he’d always say he didn’t want to box himself into a corner with definitions and labels.

But this – this was blatant in-your-face proof, wasn’t it? In another world – if this was indeed another world – Jason was dating a guy. Given the right circumstances, Jason turned out to be definitely not-straight.

It would probably be an easier concept to grasp if the guy in question wasn’t Jason best friend and completely platonic bro, Percy Jackson. Especially when Percy kept looking over at him with gentle smiles and soft hand-squeezes.

Walking through camp was a surreal experience. So many things were different, yet still the same. There were a lot less cabins – only twelve, arranged in a horse-shoe shape. When they passed by the Hermes cabin, Jason realized it was overflowing, which made no sense. Hermes didn’t have a lot of kids, no more than any of the other gods.

Jason’s old Percy was well-known and well-liked all around camp. Whenever he and Percy would take a stroll and talk about whatever popped into their minds, they could hardly walk two feet without someone saying hi to Percy or calling over to him or stopping him to talk. It would annoy the absolute hell out of Jason. He never said anything, but he knew Percy knew. He would always look over and grin at Jason while he talked to whoever had stopped him, a partner-in-crime sort of grin. Jason missed it.

This Percy was no different. Most of the other campers were people Jason didn’t know, but the reactions to Percy were the same. The high-fives, the fist bumps, the long chats while they were walking. Jason didn’t understand why these people didn’t at least respect the fact that they were a so-called couple out doing couple-y things and didn’t want to be disturbed. He’d have thought the hand-holding would have changed things.

Percy’s grin was the same though, but this time it was accompanied by a squeeze of the hand. Jason wondered if his Percy would do the same hand-squeeze each time if he could.

Something disturbing, though, was the way the campers treated Jason. Some of them were friendly and included him in the conversation. The ones who were Percy’s friends talked to Jason for a short while in an admiring manner Jason had unfortunately grown accustomed to, and then continued their chat with Percy. And then there was the third faction, who glanced at Jason with the hint of a scowl on their faces, only acknowledged Percy’s existence, and gave Jason the coldest shoulder imaginable. Percy’s jaw clenched each time this happened, and he was short and clipped in his conversation with those certain people.

Jason remembered the way the Stolls had said the word ‘treason’, and Chiron’s sharp answer to them. Campers back in Jason’s world weren’t the friendliest to Jason either, but that was mainly because he was considered a generally intimidating and sort of unapproachable presence. If they were distant to him this world for an even more misunderstood reason, Jason would scream.

“Are you feeling better?” Percy asked when they were almost to his cabin.

“Yeah, a little,” Jason said, trying to sound sickly. “I think I just need to lie down a little bit.” Alone, he wanted to add.

“Yeah, no problem. I know you didn’t get much sleep last night.” Percy grinned at him as they climbed the steps to his cabin.

Jason flushed. Percy didn’t mean…?

He couldn’t. Jason and Piper hadn’t done anything except over-the-clothes type things. He’d always assumed the same went for Percy and Annabeth. But what if that wasn’t true? What if Jason’s Percy wasn’t a virgin?

What if this Percy wasn’t a virgin?

What if this Jason wasn’t a virgin?

“Um,” he said, trying not to panic. He shifted on his feet as Percy opened the door. Shouldn’t he feel different if he was currently in a deflowered body? He knew virginity was a social construct and all, but it happened to be a social construct Jason thought of semi-often, and this body no longer had that social construct, so did that mean he was also deflowered, in a way? Was it still losing his virginity if he had lost it physically but not mentally?

And since he was in a same-sex relationship, exactly how had he lost his virginity? Did he want to know? Had it hurt? He didn’t want to admit it, but he was pretty sure there was only one kind of role he wanted to play in that situation, but did he only think that because of some deep-seated homophobic and misogynist ideals? Or was that just a preference? Were these really the sort of things he should be thinking about, in relation to Percy, when Percy had clearly never given permission to Jason to think about these kinds of things?

He was sure these were the kinds of questions Nico would roll his eyes at, if he ever said them aloud. But then, why? Why wasn’t he allowed to ask these sorts of questions? How was he meant to learn if he couldn’t ask?

He was so caught up in his frenzy about virginity that he didn’t notice Percy, who had closed the door behind them, turned on all the lights, and was now facing Jason with his hands on his hips and his lips pursed.

“Listen to me,” he said, and his voice was hard, not at all like it had been before.

Jason startled. “Percy?”

He must have done something wrong, because Percy did not at all look like he had only moments before. His face had lost all trace of flirtatiousness. His mouth was a severe line. His eyes were two glinting stones. He looked at Jason like he had never seen him before.

“I’m going to ask you this once and once only,” Percy said, and then he slipped his hand into his jeans pocket where Jason knew Riptide poised ready, “I’ll know if you’re lying to me, and trust me, you don’t want to lie to me.”

Jason had no weapon, Percy was unstoppable with his sword, and they were in a cabin made for children of Poseidon, where Percy had every advantage. These were facts. Jason swallowed nervously. “Percy…?”

“Who are you?” Percy said, advancing on him. “And where is Jason Grace?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> jason: i cant believe i'm dating my best bro in this world can you believe how gross  
> also jason: so can i fuck percy or will he fuck me inquiring minds want to know  
> ok i really hope you guys are digging this so far bc i cant help but doubt it, i know it's different from more fluffier things i've written and don't be alarmed there's going to be so much fluff later on bc i can't control myself i live for that fluff, but this story calls for a slightly more serious kind of writing so i hope you guys still like it.  
> also the updates are coming fast rn bc i have this stuff already written out, pls dont be disappointed if i hit pause for a little while bc i do still have exams coming up soon which i have not studied anything for.  
> as always, pls comment your thoughts!! love u bye


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